Unexpected Confessions
by rachmarie150
Summary: How will Regina cope after Emma saves her from the darkness? Post Season 4 One-Shot. SWANQUEEN. *COMPLETE*


**I'm back! So sorry y'all, I've been quite busy, and honestly, my best friend and I have been co-writing and we started our own fanfic account, so I've been writing with her rather than working on my own stories.**

 **Anyyywayyyy, this is my first Once Upon A Time fanfic, and I kind of just randomly thought of the idea the other day and decided to write it out! So, let me know what you think in the reviews!**

 **Happy 4th of July! Yay America! (:**

* * *

Regina layed in bed and listened to the soft sobs of her little boy as he cried into his pillow. Henry was growing up quickly and was soon to be a man, but Regina would always think of him as her little boy, no matter how old he was.

What she didn't realize was that soon she was shedding tears too, not only for the pain of her boy, but for the situation in general. She was surprised by her actions, for she rarely ever cried, and she certainly never expected to cry for the person she was lamenting over. It was a strange feeling, foreign, really, and she wasn't expecting to have this kind of reaction.

Finally, Henry's cries from the other room subsided, and Regina drug her tired body out of bed to check on him. She peeked through the crack in his door to see him curled into the fetal position, asleep, his eyes puffy and his pillow wet from tears.

Although she was surprised by her own reaction, she was more so shocked by Henry's. He was always the optimistic one, even during the most trying times. Seeing _him_ so broken made her even _more_ broken. She wondered how he would be right now if he had witnessed the whole thing. Probably even worse than he is now. Is that even possible?

Another tear made its way down Regina's cheek and she quickly wiped it away, sniffling quietly. She made her way toward Henry's bed and kissed his forehead before climbing in next to him, needing to be close to the one person who's always believed in him. She draped the covers over herself and swiped the last, almost dry tear from her son's face. She lied there thinking for a while before her exhaustion took over and she fell into a restless sleep.

* * *

"Mom? Mom! Mom, wake up!" Henry yelled as he shook Regina's shoulders, trying to wake her from her nightmare.

"Emma, no! Emma!" Regina kept yelling, thrashing, and not waking, despite Henry's attempts.

"Mom!" Henry yelled and shook Regina for the umpteenth time, finally waking her. She was sweating and out of breath from the intensity of the nightmare.

"Oh Henry, I'm so sorry," Regina cried as she wrapped her arms around him, hugging him close to her.

"It all replayed in your dream, didn't it? When the darkness overtook Mom," Henry asked.

"Yes," Regina choked out, after a bit of hesitation. She took a deep breath and continued, "I still can't believe it happened. I can't believe I _let_ it happen."

"Hey, you can't blame yourself for this," Henry said, wrapping his arms around the woman who raised him. They may not have always gotten along, but Henry really did love Regina, and he knew that no matter what she had done in her past, he was one of the only things she really felt true love for and had real pride in. Whether Emma was in the picture or not, Regina raised him as his mother, and he loved her as so.

The doorbell rang, startling them both.

"Could you run down and see who that is?" Regina asked. "I'm nowhere near presentable at the moment."

"Sure," Henry said as he hopped out of bed and made his way out of his bedroom and down the stairs to the front door.

"Mom? It's Robin," Henry said as he opened the large door and gave the huntsman a polite greeting, inviting him inside.

"Shit," Regina mumbled to herself. It's not that she didn't want him around, but she needed time to process, and she just didn't think that he was the best person to do that with.

Robin made his way upstairs to Regina's bedroom, where she was now standing, looking at herself in the mirror, noticing her puffy face from all the crying she had done the previous night.

"Hey," Robin said quietly so he didn't startle her. "How are you?"

"I'm just fine, how are you?" She said firmly, trying to put on a face for Robin, to seem like she had it together and wasn't at all phased by what had happened.

"Are you sure about that? Because you didn't seem so okay last night. Please, Regina, let me take care of you. Let me in," Robin replied as he made his way over to her, wrapping his arms around her from behind and giving her a kiss on the back of the neck.

Regina broke from his embrace and created space between them. "I just don't think you're the right person to process this with."

"Why not? I love you, Regina, and I'm here to help you and comfort you. Plus, isn't having Emma out of the picture what you've wanted since she got here? You can resume life as it was before and move on, with me. Emma's not here to muddy the waters of your life anymore."

Regina stood there, eyes wide and jaw slacked by his response. "Are you _kidding_ me? You think I'm _happy_ that this happened to her? The darkness was supposed to overtake me, Robin, not her! Whether I like it or not, she's saved us all here, and she's created a lot of good out of mostly bad things in this town. She helped me realize that I'm not all evil; that I can be a hero too. Alright yes, maybe when she got to Storybrooke, I hated her. She showed up out of nowhere and demanded to be treated like she had known us all forever and had been a part of Henry's life for the past fifteen years. Of course that pissed me off. Wouldn't it, you? But you know what, she's made me realize what real love between a mother and her son is, and even though all I wanted to do in the beginning was get rid of her and move on with life, she's become someone who has helped me see the light in the darkness, which I never thought I'd see again. She's part of our family now. 'You've worked too hard to have your happiness destroyed' was what she said to me. And you know what? She's right. I have worked really hard to be happy. But I'm not truly happy yet, and I'm just now coming to the realization that I'll never be happy until I get Emma back. For Henry, and for myself. She's become one of the only people that truly believes in me, and I've come to love her."

Regina didn't even realize she was crying, but at this point, she didn't care and let the tears flow freely. "I love her. I never thought this would happen, but it has, and it's just now hitting me. I feel like I'm finally understanding what it feels like to _be_ the hero and to _understand_ the hero. I was always in charge in Storybrooke, but since Emma's gotten here, she's taken charge, and I hated it in the beginning, but I've come to realize that she's doing everything right. She took on the role of Savior and she's saved more lives and more people's happiness than anyone I've ever known. She told her parents that they've taken the darkness out of her once and they need to do it again as heroes. _I_ want to be her hero. _I_ want to save her. Because damn it, I love her and she deserves all the happiness in the world, and I want to give that to her."

Regina took a deep breath. She couldn't believe that she had professed her love for Emma. She didn't even realize that what she had been feeling was love until she said it aloud. And it felt… exhilarating.

When she was met with silence, Regina spun around to find herself alone in her room.

"Robin?" Regina called out, going out into the hallway and looking down over the banister.

"He left," Henry replied from his room, where he was standing in the doorway. "Did you really mean all that, Mom? Do you really love her?"

"Yes," Regina choked out.

After a bit of hesitation from Henry, Regina figured that he disapproved, but soon, his face broke out into the biggest, happiest smile. "Well come on then! You need to go find her and tell her that!"

"Oh Henry," Regina cried once again, wrapping her boy into the biggest hug and squeezing him tightly. "Thank you. If it wasn't for you, I never would've found this happiness. You'll always be the real light of my life, you know."

"And you're mine, Mom," Henry replied with a smile, kissing Regina's tear-stained cheek. "Now come on! We have to think of a name for our new operation!"


End file.
